Description

Fred McBride was the nephew of Red Fox Chasers fiddler Guy Brooks and part of the final generation of old timers on the fiddle. I was lucky enough to be his cousin and to get some time with him. Fred played in numerous bands and made a couple of wonderful commercial recordings, but I always cherished these clips of just fiddle and banjo recorded in his living room between 2002 and 2005. Fred’s fiddling covers a range of influences from a childhood in Wilkes County, to playing with family in Alleghany County, to learning from others he respected like Thornton Spencer. He was always learning new tunes and bringing out old ones you never heard him play. He was a gentleman, and I hope to have absorbed both some of his playing and some of who he was. – Lucas Pasley